- Title: WEST BANK: Clashes at anti-barrier protest on six year anniversary
- Date: 19th February 2011
- Summary: BILIN, WEST BANK (FEBRUARY 18, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PALESTINIANS AND ACTIVISTS MARCHING TOWARDS SITE OF BARRIER, WAVING FLAGS DEMONSTRATORS HOLDING LARGE SIGN DENOUNCING POSSIBLE U.S VETO ON UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION CONDEMNING ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS DEMONSTRATORS HOLDING SIGN READING IN ENGLISH 'ISRAELI APARTHEID: MADE IN USA' MORE OF DEMONSTRATORS HOLDING SIGN DEMONSTRATORS RUNNING AS THEY ARE SPRAYED WITH "SKUNK" SMELLY LIQUID TRUCK SPRAYING LIQUID PALESTINIAN FLAG NEAR WOMAN'S FACE VARIOUS OF TRUCK SPRAYING "SKUNK" ISRAELI SOLDIERS FIRING TEAR GAS AT DEMONSTRATORS, SOME OF THEM HURLING STONES / DEMONSTRATORS THROWING TEAR GAS CANISTERS BACK AT SOLDIERS DEMONSTRATOR THROWING TEAR GAS CANISTER ISRAELI SOLDIERS MARCHING TOWARDS VILLAGE SOLDIERS FIRING TEAR GAS STREAKS OF WHITE SMOKE IN THE SKY WOMAN STANDING IN FRONT OF SOLDIER RAISING HER ARMS SMOKE BILLOWING MAN SCREAMING AT SOLDIERS FLOWER BUDS PEOPLE SITTING ON ROCKS
- Embargoed: 6th March 2011 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: West bank, West bank
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA9B231P27NFUS16DE0OGF05OIR
- Story Text: Israeli security forces say 300 demonstrators marched in the West Bank village of Bilin on Friday (February 18). They were marking 6 years of regular protests against the controversial Israeli wall erected to stop attacks on Israeli towns by Palestinian activists.
Palestinians say the wall cuts them off from their friends and relatives, makes it harder to get in and out of the the West Bank, cuts down on the flow of food and essential supplies and is a form of harassment by Israeli soldiers manning the checkpoints.
It has been condemned by the United Nations.
The protest degenerated when the army fired tear gas and sprayed foul-smelling liquid at activists to disperse them.
An Israeli army spokesperson unit said the protest was illegal and that protesters had hurled rocks at soldiers.
Demonstrators chanted, waved Palestinian flags and held signs denouncing Washington's possible veto of the U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity.
The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to start discussions later on Friday on a draft resolution that Arab states submitted in January, demanding that Israel halt settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel credits the barrier -- a network of fences interspersed with concrete walls, projected to be 720 km (450 miles) long when complete -- with stemming Palestinian suicide bombings that peaked in 2002 and 2003. But Palestinians condemn the project for looping around settlement blocs in the West Bank, where they want to set up a state.
With its weekly and often violent protests, Bilin has become a symbol of the Palestinian struggle.
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